The original promoter of soft power, Joseph Nye, comments on the term “smart power” in the Los Angeles Times today. Foreign Affairs hosted two important “soft power” and “smart power” articles; the first,”What New World Order”, was written by Nye in 1992 and the second, “Smart Power“, was written by Suzanne Nossel in 2004. The ambitious and unemployed can check out Nye's book, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. Smart power, the phrase at least, has become a buzzword in light of Hillary Clinton's repeated use of it during her confirmation hearing.
Smart power is especially appealing because the “smart” is directly deduced from Nossel's clear opinion that Bush's use of power was, well, the opposite of smart. Nossel doesn't just look at the Bush years, though. She traces the manners in which both progressives and conservatives overemphasized the “soft” or “hard” elements of power that were present, and argues for a middle ground. In the specific context of the Middle East, navigating that line will be a real challenge.